COFAR blog

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are usually strong advocates of accountability and transparency in government.

That’s why it is surprising that both of those organizations appear to be using the coronavirus pandemic to further a longstanding agenda, which we never knew they shared, to privatize services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

It’s particularly surprising that the SEIU, a human services employee union that represents caregivers in the state’s two remaining developmental centers, would be on board with closing down state-run care facilities.

In a petition filed June 23 with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the ACLU, SEIU, and a number of other advocacy organizations appear to start off on the right track in criticizing the federal government for its mismanaged response to the pandemic.

The petition identifies nursing homes, Intermediate Care Facilities for the developmentally disabled (ICFs), and group homes as sites of large numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths that could have been prevented with better guidance for infection control, more testing, and better patient and worker protections.

But the petition then goes on to make a number of, at times, poorly conceived and even confusing claims and recommendations that ultimately appear intended to support a privatized care agenda.

At least some of the confusion centers around group homes, which the petition lumps together with ICFs as sources of “congregate care.”

The petition suggests that among the causes of the infections and deaths is the federal government’s failure “to divert people from entering nursing homes or other congregate settings” or to increase discharges from those settings “to the community.”

The argument the petition makes is that reducing the population in all of those facilities would “make social distancing possible.”

The petition defines congregate settings as including ICFs, psychiatric facilities, and group homes. Yet, group homes are considered part of the community-based system of care in Massachusetts and other states.  As a result, it isn’t clear what the ACLU and SEIU mean in stating that people living in group homes would be among those in congregate settings who should move “to the community.”

The petition, moreover, calls for reducing the population of nursing homes and congregate settings by 50 percent. Should HHS neglect to act within three weeks to enact that and other suggested measures, the groups will sue, the petition states.

It is unclear whether the ACLU and SEIU mean that nursing homes, ICFs, and group homes should all be emptied of 50 percent of their residents, or where those residents would then go.

VOR, COFAR’s national affiliate, issued a statement sharply critical of the petition, maintaining that:

…the ACLU has cast its net too wide, and falsely claimed to represent the interests of everyone receiving federally funded services who is classified as elderly or who has intellectual and developmental disabilities. In doing so, it apparently assumes that all such persons look and feel alike and need the same supports and level of care.

Further confusion over the HCBS waiver

Adding to the confusion over group homes is language in the ACLU/SEIU petition calling on HHS to “provide incentives to states to redesign their Medicaid programs to expand Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) and other community-based services and supports” with the goal of the 50 percent reduction in the population in congregate settings.

Once again, that language is confusing in that group homes in Massachusetts and other states have long been recipients of federal funding under an HCBS waiver of Medicaid regulations governing ICFs. In asking for an expansion of Medicaid funding under the HCBS waiver, is the petition suggesting that the money go toward care in a setting other than group homes?

ACLU/SEIU petition misreads the Olmstead Supreme Court decision

The ACLU/SEIU petition further misreads the landmark Olmstead v. L.C. U.S. Supreme Court decision, which paved the way for expansion of privatized care. Although the 1999 decision held that community-based care should be made available for those who desire it, it nevertheless recognized the role played by institutional care for those who can’t function under community-based care.

The Olmstead ruling stated that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) “does not condone or require removing individuals from institutional settings when they are unable to benefit from, or do not desire, a community-based setting.”

We have asked the SEIU’s Massachusetts affiliate, Local 509, whether it is in support of the ACLU/SEIU petition. We have not heard back yet, but we hope they are in a position to disavow it.

There is a lot to be concerned about regarding the efforts of both the federal government and the state government here in Massachusetts to protect persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities from the virus. We’ve raised a lot of those concerns over the past few months.

At the same time, and for that reason, we don’t think it is appropriate for any organization to use the pandemic to support an anti-institutional agenda.